Radu Dragusin appears poised for an extended run in the Tottenham side and Ange Postecoglou is full of praise over the defender’s development.
A £26m signing from Serie A outfit Genoa in the January transfer window, the Romania international has found starts harder to come by due to the strong central defensive partnership forged by Cristian Romero and Micky van de Ven.
Such has been Dragusin's limited game time that he had been linked with an exit in the new year amid reported interest from Napoli - now managed by ex-Spurs head coach Antonio Conte - although his agent, Florin Manea, ruled out the possibility of a return to Italy.
And it would appear that the 22-year-old's patience is about to be rewarded as he is the most likely option to replace Van de Ven against Aston Villa at the weekend and is in line to keep his place in defence at least until the international break as the aforementioned Dutchman isn't expected back before then.
Discussing Dragusin’s development since arriving in north London, Postecoglou has picked out the qualities that could turn him into one the the best defender’s in the Premier League in the future.
"Radu's been with us 10 months now and I think he's been great. We signed him because we saw some really strong attributes in him in terms of his defending capabilities, his mindset and again a really unique journey that he had to fight hard to get where he wants to. So, he had all those things I look for.
“He is still young and he is working hard every day on his game and all aspects of his game. Defenders you know they tend to get better with age with experience, the good ones, and with him, guys like Micky and Destiny, the reason we signed them at the age they did is we really believe in years to come they'll get stronger and he is doing that.
“Every time he is out there I think I can see improvements. He is really embracing the way we play. It is very different to where he came from, playing so aggressively with our line and defending one-on-one but he's embracing that and enjoying that.
“I thought he was great the other night. Not just in his football but in terms of his presence and demeanour, he took some leadership there.
"Obviously, we lost two of our back four during the game with Micky going down and then Cuti (Cristian Romero) out. He had Archie next to him who is 18 and I thought he really stood up in that time just to make sure with those disruptions, we maintained our organisation and I thought he was really good."
